


The Night We Met

by rose_coloured



Series: Flowers and Stardust [3]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-14 06:02:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14129631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rose_coloured/pseuds/rose_coloured
Summary: Courfeyrac should have known better than to drive all the way up to his family's house by the sea on the hottest day of the year. But a place full of childhood memories and a pretty stranger at the beach may be worth it.





	The Night We Met

The greatest tragedy? A landlocked soul, who has fallen in love with the waves of the ocean.

The summer heat was burning and Courfeyrac was pretty sure that, if he had to sit in the car for another hour he would melt into a very disgusting puddle. His dark brown curls were plastered to his forehead and he once again cursed whoever had made the decision to get a car with black leather seats. His mum had, she had thought it would look classy.   
He had almost burned his skin. Maybe he shouldn’t have started his drive in the worst heat. It was almost 7 pm and after 7 hours in the car, he was sure, that driving through the night would have been much more pleasant.   
And what a shame that would be to go from the earth like this. Melting in an old car on the way to a place he loved.   
After all, he was still young, had just turned 18 a few weeks ago. In his opinion, that was way too young to melt in an ancient car without an AC or you know functional windows. But the seats looked classy. Going out in style.  
Maybe he should have taken his father's car instead of the run-down one he had gotten when his mum had bought herself a new one. It was older than he himself. But he had wanted to take his own car, a sign of independence at least in Courfeyrac’s eyes. A short look at the map – he had forgotten his GPS at home – told him, that it couldn’t be too long until he was there.  
And true, although he usually spent the car-rides fast asleep, he started to remember the landscape. Slowly the thick dark green of the forest gave way to a stunning view of the coastline with the blue ocean glittering in the distance and Courfeyrac had to stop the car on the side of the road for a moment to just take a look.  
It was beautiful.   
The surroundings in the city made your own life seem distant.

*

It took him only another half an hour to arrive at his parents’ summer house. He killed the engine and practically jumped out of the car with a sigh.   
Finally!  
The strong breeze, smelling salty like the ocean, instantly made him feel better. He had missed the sea so badly and coming back once a year was leaving him with a hole in heart for another eleven months every time. Luckily it didn’t take him long to unload the car and get everything into the main house. There was a thin layer of dust on the furniture and the air was stale, so the first thing he did was opening the curtains, windows and the large doors that led to the patio.   
While the ocean breeze filled the small house Courfeyrac put away the food and then took his suitcase and went over to the smaller cabin.

His own little kingdom.

As a kid, he had loved the idea of an own cabin all for himself. Soon enough he had noticed that his mother also wanted him to keep it clean by himself… Well, it still was amazing in his eyes.   
His small cabin wasn’t much more than one room that had just space for a bed and a small dresser. A door led to the small bathroom in the back of the cabin.   
The really amazing part though was the view.   
The bedroom had a glass front that faced the cliffs and the sea. More than once Courfeyrac had woken up to the sea glittering or to thick walls of white fog, that looked truly terrifying.   
Courfeyrac didn’t bother with unpacking the rest of his belongings. After all, he had four more weeks and right now a shower sounded like a priority.

*

Freshly showered there was nothing to hold him back from the best part of every arrival at the house. Courfeyrac basically ran out of the cabin, the wind feeling heavenly on his still damp skin.  
He had noticed the small trail that led down to the sea the first summer they had spent here. When his parents had told him they bought a summer house on the coast, little Courfeyrac had dreamed of beautiful Caribbean beaches, kilometers of white sand, as far as you could look.   
The first time he had looked down the cliffs he had been deeply disappointed.   
Instead of sand, the beach was full of pebbles and big sharp looking rocks, that seemed to come out of the unruly sea.

But once he had found the steep trail that now led him down again he had found his peace with the situation.  
He stumbled into some spiky vines that scratched his legs when he slipped on a sleek rock, but that didn’t stop him from running the last meters. It was like Alice going down the rabbit hole, a steep path into a different world and he couldn’t reach it fast enough.

No, Courfeyrac only stopped when he felt the pebbles under his feet and heard them fall against one another every time he moved.   
This was the full expanse of his kingdom.  
A stretch of beach all to himself. There were not really any other houses around, only one a bit farther away also up on the cliff, but the curtains had been drawn close for as long as Courfeyrac had known.

So this was all his.

He stumbled a bit making his way to the shoreline.   
To his right, there were the small wooden crosses, names, and dates elegantly carved into small badges.  
The fishermen, who once made up most of the closer villages population.  
Or at least the ones the sea had claimed back.  
Something like that had been added to one of the crosses after all. Courfeyrac remembered because it had held two dates, but no names.

> “The sea loves more deeply than any human could and those it loves the most, it will claim back when their time has come.”  
> “9.10.1800-10.12.1836”   
> “24.6.1830-9.8.1848”

The only thing left from the old days of fishing was the lighthouse on the left outer corner of the bay. It had been much needed, the storms during the winter had killed more than one man. It was green with white stripes and rusty. He knew that it had been a long time since fishermen had been active, it hadn’t been profitable at some point and then big wars came and went and after that nobody would go back to the unruly sea. People had left the villages behind, searching for a new life in the cities and many houses were left to rot.  
His mother had loved this idea, of taking this old house and renovating it from scratch, after all, it had taken his parents more than five years to turn it into the amazing place Courfeyrac knew it as. And he was sure, nobody in his family regretted the decision.

*

Courfeyrac passed the long row of wooden crosses, glancing at some of them until he finally reached the water. Without thinking twice, he took off his shoes, carelessly throwing them in the general direction of the dry land, before he stepped into the cool ocean.   
The water was warmed by many days of sunshine and yet it was a relieving coolness around his feet, Courfeyrac was very tempted to just let himself fall into the water, but no.

 

Instead, he walked further away from the shore until the ocean reached his knees and he had to walk cautiously or he would slip on the stones and algae.   
Around him, there was no sound other than the waves splashing against the rocks behind him. One or two seagulls were screaming in the distance. No cars were visible on the small street to the lighthouse, maybe there was nobody around for the next 20 kilometers.   
For once the thought was calming to Courfeyrac.   
He turned around swiftly stalking back to the shore, not bothering with putting on shoes before he took a deep breath and leaped onto the first rock with ease.  
Over the years he had grown, he wasn’t sure when he had last spent his time hopping from rock to rock pretending he was a pirate, raiding ships and hoarding treasures on his own little island. But it must have been years because while his mind remembered the best ways to jump and climb, his body had changed and he more than once almost dove into the water.   
He only saved himself by grabbing onto a sharp edge one time. But not even the blood that trickled down his palm stopped him from going on. Often enough had he come up to the house with scraped knees, he would survive. At least this time his mother wouldn’t make a fuss.

*

Courfeyrac wasn't really sure about how long he had been climbing around but the dusk was crawling onto the beach, the shadows getting longer and the rocks getting sharper from minute to minute.  
He had never stayed down at the beach until after the sun had set. His mother had always thought it would be too dangerous, climbing on the rocks in the dark. But his mother wasn’t here, so he sat down on his favorite rock, the one that was the furthest away from the shore. It took him a small jump to reach it, landing with an awkward stumble and almost falling back into the water but he could hold his balance.

Courfeyrac had never fallen.

Even though his mother had scolded him more than once when she had seen him doing this from the house.  
This felt like a small island on its own. On days when the sea was rough, the big waves broke against it. It was like the last bastion, a tall one, that at it’s highest point was at least 2ft higher than the other rocks on the shore.   
As a child standing on this it felt like he was a true king, overlooking his own land.

No man's land.

Sitting down here to watch the sunset was beautiful. The world could end right now, he wouldn’t know and wouldn’t care. It was just him and the endless sea and the darkness slowly creeping upon him.  
Lost in his thoughts Courfeyrac didn’t hear the footsteps on the pebbles or the rustling of clothes as somebody cautiously climbed the rocks, only to stay at the one behind him. They didn’t jump over the gap but rather stayed on the safe land.   
No, Courfeyrac didn’t hear any of that.

What he heard, was a soft voice rhythmic like it was singing with every word, clearly audible despite the wind and waves rushing around them.

_“It keeps eternal whisperings around_   
_Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell”_

The sounds tore Courfeyrac out of his thoughts and he stumbled to his feet, almost slipping just barely keeping his balance.  
The voice kept talking unbothered.

_“Gluts twice ten thousand Caverns, till the spell_   
_Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound.”_

A bit unsteady on his feet Courfeyrac turned around to look at the person behind him. It was a boy, kneeling on the rock behind him holding onto sharp edges to not lose his balance.

_“Often 'tis in such gentle temper found,_   
_That scarcely will the very smallest shell”_

He didn’t look at him, probably hadn’t even seen the other boy, but at the sea a look of utter amazement on his face. Courfeyrac was staring, he knew it, but there was no way not to.

_“Be moved for days from where it sometime fell._   
_When last the winds of Heaven were unbound.”_

The boy looked like he had fallen out of time, his skin was pale, a few freckles dusting his cheeks. He had reddish curly hair down to his shoulders and his clothes looked like they came from those weird vintage-blogs Cosette loved to look at.

_“Oh, ye! who have your eyeballs vexed and tired,_   
_Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;”_

In the red light of the sunset, his hair was on fire, flames blazing around his features like they could set the sea on fire.

_“Oh ye! whose ears are dinned with uproar rude,_   
_Or fed too much with cloying melody---”_

He tore his gaze away from the sea and looked Courfeyrac in the eyes a mischievous grin on thin lips. Then he held out his hand, but not moving towards him. He stayed on the rock. And so Courfeyrac was brought back into motion, taking a run-up and swiftly jumping over the small gap and reaching for the boy's hand.  
He hauled him up on the rock and they both came to a stumbling halt, faces bare centimeters apart.

_“Sit ye near some old Cavern's Mouth and brood,_   
_Until ye start as if the sea nymphs quired!”_

The boy's voice was quieter now, but still as thoughtful as he spoke the last lines, his eyes once more trained on the horizon.   
There wasn’t really a way to get space between them and Courfeyrac stumbled back half a step and finally, the boy looked up at him with a crooked grin. 

“I didn’t think I would see you here again.”, his first words were. His voice was less determined now but he spoke every single word as if it meant something special. Courfeyrac couldn’t do more than stare at him quite dumbfoundedly. He had never seen the boy before.  
“I am Jehan.”, he the boy continued and then he went back to staring at the ocean. “Can you get me down there?”  
Courfeyrac followed his gaze to the rock he had just been occupying. “Uh, yes, I guess. It’s not that hard.” Somehow his brain felt completely fried as if a light mist was clouding his mind and he very pointedly tried not to look at the boy again.   
Jehan, he reminded himself.

“I am Courfeyrac, uhm by the way.”, he added lamely. Jehan gazed up at him and damn he had dimples when he smiled.   
“Nice to finally have a name for that face. And nice to finally speak to you Coufeyrac.”  
The way the boy said his name gave Courfeyrac goosebumps.  
Somehow wobbly on his feet he still managed to somehow graciously manage the small jump and then help the other boy down onto the rock.   
Onto his island.

*

When they both sat down, it was Jehan who spoke up again. “I have almost lost hope, that I’d see you again.”   
It was said so incidentally that Courfeyrac blurted out in confusion. “I am sorry, but I have never seen you before.” And damn he kind of regretted it, because this somehow magical boy was going to leave him in total confusion. And Courfeyrac really wanted him to stay, for whatever reason.   
Instead, the boy shrugged and leaned back letting some last rays of sunshine warm his face. “Oh, I know.” As if it was an everyday occurrence to just meet somebody you’ve been looking forward to meeting, but who had never known you.

“You know? But why do you know me?”, the confusion must have been written all over Courfeyrac’s face. When the other boy opened one eye slightly to look at him he snorted with laughter instead of answering.   
“Please, don’t look at me like I am an ax-murderer. I lived in the house over there.” Slender fingers pointed at the house on the other side of the cliff. The one with the curtains drawn shut.   
“I have never seen anybody around there.”

“Yes, my mother and I we…”, for once the boy’s voice wavered and he looked at his hands. “We don’t really leave the house much. I am not really allowed to.”   
His voice had gone small in the end sounding kinda throaty.   
Shocked Courfeyrac looked at him. Jehan had rarely ever left the small house up on the cliffs? He didn’t care why this was wrong so wrong.  
“That’s why I was glad when you and your family moved here.”, the boy continued looking up at Courfeyrac with a glad expression on his face. The sunlight barely lit his face anymore and his eyes seemed darker than they had before. “You brought life back here. And whenever my books got too boring, I could watch you running around. It was really cute.”   
He smirked and Courfeyrac did not blush.   
No, he didn’t.

 

Judging by Jehan’s chuckle, he did.   
“I am grateful, it made the days much more bearable. Winter usually is okay, nobody leaves the house much during winter here. But I loved spending time down here when I was small and summer gets boring really really fast. You made that much better.”

Courfeyrac wanted to ask, why Jehan wasn’t allowed down in the water anymore, but he didn’t dare to. Instead, he let the boy continue.  
“It was like a fairytale coming true, you know. I always wondered, what you were imagining doing. If you were a pirate or a soldier or even a knight. I liked the thought of you being a knight.” Now it was Jehan, who blushed. “It’s stupid, I know, but small me hoped you were kind of a fearless knight in shining armor, who would come up one day and get me out of there. I am sure you are amazing at slaying dragons.”   
He didn’t look Courfeyrac in the eyes, instead, he now had his eyes trained on the water, small waves splashing against the rock. His hand hovered over the surface, not quite touching.  
“I always imagined I was a pirate.”, Courfeyrac said in a hoarse voice. “I would have loved to have you on my crew, we would have been the kings of the seas.”  
Now Jehan looked up back at him again, his thoughtful expression was replaced by a smile that was blinding even in the low light of dusk.

*

After that they fell into comfortable conversation, Courfeyrac talked about home and his friends and Jehan talked about his favorite books and the way the clouds sometimes banked up in autumn “Like the world was about to end and the sea was about to take back what had once belonged to it.”  
It was like two, unlike worlds, had collided, but somehow they fit, with shy glances and warm smiles.   
Courfeyrac didn’t know when, but at some point, Jehan had taken his hand while telling a story about the one time he had seen a deer standing in front of his bedroom window one morning. Even when the other boy was speaking about the most mundane things, Courfeyrac got lost in the way he spoke. He could listen to Jehan for the rest of the month.  
The sky and sea got darker as the night went on, it was a calm night no clouds and instead the billions of stars in the sky. When he noticed them Jehan was gaping, leaning back until he was lying on his back and dragging Courfeyrac along to lie down next to him.

“I haven’t seen the stars like this for years. I am sure they are more than the last time.”, Jehan whispered so close to Courfeyrac’s ear that it made him shiver. Maybe it was true, maybe when nobody was looking more and more stars gathered in the night sky, for young poets to admire them. “Maybe, I only see them during summer.”, Courfeyrac mused. “You don’t see the stars in the city.”  
“Aren’t we miserable souls? The sky is so near and yet we aren’t allowed to marvel at its beauty. What an amazing sadness, this leaves in one’s soul.”  
At a loss for words, Courfeyrac simply nodded and squeezed Jehan’s hand in his, before looking at him. In the dark the boy wasn’t much more than a shadow, a face of sharp edges and dark eyes gazing at the sky. 

He was beautiful.

“Oh, thank you.”, Jehan had turned his head looking into Courfeyrac’s eyes once more. Apparently, he had said the last part out loud.  
”I… I am sorry.”, he mumbled and there were more words on his tongue, about he usually wasn’t this forward (maybe that was a bit of a lie), but he couldn’t say another word. Jehan had crossed the small distance between them for a kiss.   
Soft and chaste, it was a barely-there touch of cold lips against his.

*

“Dou you want to go for a swim?”, Courfeyrac broke their comfortable silence. Jehan blinked before he looked at the water warily.   
“I can’t. I don’t know how to swim.”, he said while his feet splashed around in the water.   
“Really?”   
Jehan simply shrugged.   
“My father wanted to teach me, but he died before he had the chance to do so. And my mother isn’t very fond of the sea. She was afraid I’d drown, as well.” The tone in which he spoke was casual like men drowning was an everyday business.  
“Oh.”, Courfeyrac paused. “I could teach you.”, he said slowly. True, he had no idea how, but he was a quite good swimmer himself. They would manage. And the look with which Jehan eyed the water. As if he was longing to get in there.   
“I always wondered how it would feel on my skin. The ocean. If it would be fierce of soft. I wonder, how it feels to be underwater, surrounded by the sea. My mother always said we are landlocked souls. Maybe, but I have this desire, to just feel.” Jehan was now bowed over the edge his face almost on the surface.   
Courfeyrac could imagine it. His hair like flames underwater, his pale skin in the moonlight. He grabbed Jehan by the shoulder. “You should watch out or you’ll fall in there.”, he mumbled before he pressed a kiss to the other boy’s temple. Jehan hummed in agreement.

*

At some point sitting on the rock got boring so they moved to walk along the shore, Courfeyrac in the water, the waves splashing against his legs.   
It felt right to be here.   
Jehan was holding his hand like he never wanted to let go. Courfeyrac felt bad, when the night was over he would have to go back. Back into a stuffy house with nothing but books, who knew if he could sneak out again. Maybe his mother would notice him coming back. The sky was already getting lighter, dawn was looming on the horizon. Jehan’s voice ripped him from his swirling thoughts.   
“I guess I have to go.”, he pointed at his home. Nothing was moving, but the Jehan was looking at the windows nervously.   
“I hate to say goodbye.”

He squeezed Courfeyrac’s hand again.

“Look at you.”, in the blue light, he seemed almost otherworldly. “You remind me of the sea, you know? It must be your eyes”, he stepped closer, he was standing in the water with Courfeyrac. “And the way you carry yourself around the waves like they belong to you. I like it.”  
For the last time, he got to his tiptoes and pressed another soft kiss to the corner of Courfeyracs mouth.   
“I hope, I’ll see you again.”, Courfeyrac said taking in every detail of the boy’s face, touching his cheek for the last time.

Jehan smiled, dimples showing and started walking towards the small path.  
Before he reached it, he turned around one last time. 

“Be careful. My mother always says the sea may love you, but those it loves the most, it will claim back.”

**Author's Note:**

> The poem Jehan quoted is "On the Sea", by John Keats.


End file.
